While Charles Ray – the US envoy here [Zimbabwe] – portrays himself as the face of the free world, a champion of human rights and democracy, and has been vociferous about his country’s role in the Libyan invasion, it turns out that just like Vietnam and other illegal wars before it, Libya is turning into a major embarrassment for Uncle Sam.

A report released last week by human rights groups in the Middle East presents extensive evidence of war crimes carried out in Libya by the United States, NATO and their proxy “rebel” forces during last year’s invasion, that culminated in the murder of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

The “Report of the Independent Civil Society fact-finding Mission to Libya” presents findings of an investigation carried out last November by the Arab Organisation for Human Rights, together with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and the International Legal Assistance Consortium.

Based on interviews with victims of war crimes as well as with witnesses and Libyan officials in Tripoli, Zawiya, Sibrata, Khoms, Zliten, Misrata, Tawergha and Sirte, the report calls for the investigation of evidence that NATO targeted civilian sites, causing many deaths and injuries.

Civilian facilities targeted by NATO bombs and missiles included schools, government buildings, at least one food warehouse, and private homes.

The report also presents evidence of systematic murder, torture, expulsion and abuse of suspected Gaddafi loyalists by the NATO-backed “rebel” forces of the National Transitional Council. It describes the forced expulsion of the mostly black-skinned inhabitants of Tawergha and the ongoing persecution of sub-Saharan migrant workers by forces allied to the NTC and its transitional government.

The investigators report savage and repeated beatings of prisoners held without trial or charges, the summary execution of pro-Gaddafi fighters, and witness reports of “indiscriminate and retaliatory murders, including the ‘slaughter’ (i.e., throat slitting) of former combatants.”

The report exposes the human rights and democratic pretexts employed by the US, France, Britain and their NATO accomplices to carry out a colonial-style war of conquest. It makes clear that UN Security Council Resolution 1973, imposing a “no-fly zone” and arms embargo on Libya supposedly to protect civilians from repressive actions by Muammar Gaddafi, was in fact used to carry out a ruthless air war waged in co-ordination with “rebel” forces on the ground.

The report suggests that soon after the outbreak of anti-Gaddafi protests in Benghazi and other cities, opposition forces were receiving training from Western armed forces as well as weapons from NATO powers and allied Arab states. Opposition to Gaddafi that erupted last February following the fall of Mubarak in Egypt was rapidly taken into hand by the US, France, Britain and their agents within Libya to launch a pro-imperialist invasion.

As the report states: “From first-hand information available to the Mission, and secondary sources, it appears that NATO participated in what could be classified as offensive actions undertaken by the opposition forces, including, for example, attacks on towns and cities held by Gaddafi forces.

Equally, the choice of certain targets, such as a regional food warehouse, raises prima facie questions regarding the role of such attacks with respect to the protection of civilians.”

The report gives only the palest picture of a brutal onslaught whose purpose was to turn the clock back 43 years to the conditions that prevailed under the US-UK stooge King Idris, who turned the country’s oil resources over to American and British conglomerates and allowed the two powers to maintain large military bases on Libyan soil. The mass destruction and killing, which culminated in the levelling of Sirte and lynching of Gaddafi, make the UN-sanctioned claims of a war for “human rights” and the “protection of civilians” not only absurd, but obscene.

The rape of Libya was the Anglo-Saxons response to the revolutionary uprisings that ousted long-time pro-Western regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, two countries that border Libya. The aim of the invasion was to impose complete control on the country’s oil resources, divert and suppress the growth of working class struggles throughout North Africa and the Middle East, and deal a blow to China and Russia, which had established close economic relations with the Gaddafi regime.

The war destroyed Libya. The NTC – an unstable coalition of ex-Gaddafi regime officials, Islamists, including some with links to Al Qaeda, and Western intelligence assets – itself estimates that the invasion claimed 50,000 lives and injured another 50,000. Rising infighting between the NTC’s factions is opening the door to full-scale civil war between rival clan-based and regional militias.

Just this weekend, amid warnings from NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil of looming civil war, a crowd demanding the resignation of the transitional government forced its way into the NTC’s headquarters in Benghazi. Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, the vice president of the NTC, promptly resigned.

The report on US-NATO war crimes is also a further indictment of the assortment of “left” parties, intellectuals and academics who parroted the human rights pretexts of Washington and NATO and thus gave open or backhanded support to the invasion of Libya.

And still, the so-called International Criminal Court is deafeningly silent.

Doctors Without Borders says it halts work in Libyan city’s prisons because of torture
SOURCE

Dr Abuzaid Dorda, former Libyan PM and permanent representative to the UN, currently being tortured in detention by rebels in Tripoli

BENGHAZI, Libya — Doctors Without Borders has suspended its work in prisons in the Libyan city of Misrata because it said torture was so rampant that some detainees were brought for care only to make them fit for further interrogation, the group said Thursday.

The announcement was compounded by a statement from Amnesty International saying it has recorded widespread prisoner abuse in other cities as well, leading to the death of several inmates.

The allegations, which come more than three months after former leader Moammar Gadhafi was captured and killed, were an embarrassment to the governing National Transitional Council, which is struggling to establish its authority in the divided nation.

Doctors Without Borders said that since August, its medical teams have treated 115 people in Misrata who bore torture-related wounds, including cigarette burns, heavy bruising, bone fractures, tissue burns from electric shocks and kidney failure from beatings. Two detainees died after being interrogated, the group’s general director said.

“Patients were brought to us in the middle of interrogation for medical care, in order to make them fit for further interrogation. This is unacceptable,” MSF general director Christopher Stokes said in a statement. “Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions.”

Libya’s Western-backed leadership, which has sought to assure the world of its commitment to democracy and human rights, has acknowledged that some prisoners held by revolutionary forces have been abused. It insisted the mistreatment was not systematic and pledged to tackle the problem.
But the transitional government has been unable to rein in the dozens of militias that arose during the war and have been reluctant to disband or submit to central authority.

Amnesty International said in a statement issued Thursday that it has met with a number of detainees in Tripoli, Misrata, and Gharyan who showed visible marks indicating torture, including open wounds on the head, limbs, back and other parts of the body. A number of detainees spoke to Amnesty about beatings with electric cables and metal chains, and they reported being suspended in contorted positions and given electric shocks.

The London-based group said the torture and mistreatment, mostly against suspected Gadhafi loyalists and sometimes foreign nationals from sub-Saharan African countries, is carried out by officially recognized military and security bodies as well as by a number of armed militias operating outside any legal framework. The group said several detainees died in custody from torture, detailing the death of at least two detainees.

Britain, which played a key role in the NATO-led air campaign that helped revolutionary forces overthrow Gadhafi, urged the new regime to “live up to the high standards they have set themselves.”
“They need to ensure a zero tolerance policy on abuse. We are concerned about these reports and are taking them up with the Libyans as a matter of urgency,” British Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said in a statement.

The head of Amnesty International told The Associated Press the mistreatment of detainees in Libya showed the need for the international community to keep helping the country in its difficult transition. “It’s not just a matter of sending in troops and then getting out again. Libya needs long term assistance,” Salil Shetty said.

Stokes, of the MSF, told The Associated Press that those subjected to torture include ex-combatants and people accused of theft and looting.

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“There is a significant number of people with darker skin, but there is really a wide mix,” he said. “Whatever the motives, it is unacceptable to do this to human beings.”

The interrogations were carried out by Libya’s National Army Security Service at facilities outside the detention centers, MSF said in a statement.

The group, which operates in prisons but not interrogation centers, said it contacted authorities in Misrata, the port city that saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war, to demand an end to the abuse, but it received no official response, prompting MSF to halt its operations in the city’s detention centers.

MSF said it will continue its support in Misrata hospitals and schools in addition to providing assistance to African migrants, refugees and internally displaced people in and around Tripoli.

In its statement, MSF said the most alarming case was on Jan. 3, when MSF doctors treated a group of 14 detainees returning from an interrogation center. It said nine of the detainees had numerous injuries, including broken arms and renal failure, and displayed obvious signs of torture.

Stokes said his group has informed the National Army Security Service that a number of patients needed to be transferred to hospitals for urgent and specialized care. All but one of the detainees were deprived of further medical care and hospitalization, and instead taken back to interrogation centers.
“Some of them couldn’t even stand up, they were so badly beaten,” he said.

Despite the changes sweeping Libya, violence and bloodshed have not stopped. In shocking revelations, military and security forces stand accused of torturing detainees to death. Rights groups say Libya’s new rulers have not addressed the problem.

­Amnesty International says in recent weeks, it met with detainees in Tripoli, Misrata and Gharyan who showed visible signs of torture — open wounds to the head, limbs, back and other parts of the body.

“Several detainees have died after being subjected to torture in Libya in recent weeks and months amid widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspected pro-Gaddafi fighters and loyalists,” Amnesty said.

“The torture is being carried out by officially recognized military and security entities, as well as by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework,” the statement reads.

Medecins Sans Frontieres has suspended its work in Libya’s third-largest city Misrata over similar claims.

The group says it encountered formidable obstacles it could not overcome. Burns from electric shocks and cigarettes, heavy bruising and renal failure — all this, evidence of continuing torture of prisoners, the organization says.

When two more inmates died after beatings, the international group halted its mission in protest.

“Patients were brought to us in the middle of interrogation for medical care, in order to make them fit for further interrogation. This is unacceptable. Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions,” the group’s General Director Christopher Stokes said in a statement.

Detainees from Libya’s civil war held by revolutionary brigades continue to be subjected to torture despite efforts by the provisional government to address the issue, the UN human rights chief said on Wednesday.

Navi Pillay told the UN Security Council she was extremely concerned about thousands of prisoners, most of them accused of being loyalists of the toppled government of late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and many from sub-Saharan Africa.

“The lack of oversight by the central authorities creates an environment conducive to torture and ill-treatment,” Pillay said. “My staff have received alarming reports that this is happening in places of detention that they have visited.”

She said it was urgent that all Libya’s detention centers be brought under control of the Libyan Ministry of Justice and the General Prosecutor’s Office, and that detainees be screened so that they could be freed or receive a fair trial.http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2012/01/27/2003524071
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Libyan army ‘torturing detainees’ AFP January 27, 2012 3:15AM

LIBYA’S regular army and array of militias have been torturing loyalists of slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Human rights groups made the charge yesterday, adding that several of the Gaddafi supporters have died in custody.

Amnesty International said that despite promises, Libya’s new rulers have made “no progress to stop the use of torture”, as Doctors Without Borders suspended its work in the third-largest city Misrata over similar claims.

Their accusations come after a top UN official raised concerns that militias composed of former rebels who helped topple Gaddafi were posing an increasing security risk as they repeatedly clashed with each other.

HUMANITARIAN AID- GOD PRESERVE US FROM THE HELP OF NATO AND THE ZIONIST TRIO!!

LibyaRevDiaries on 25 Nov 2011

The Libyan Revolution Diaries : Short video by “Ashahed”

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“Fundamentally, Judaism is anti-Christian” (The London Jewish World, March 15, 1923). Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), the first Jew to be Prime Minister of England wrote, “The people of God cooperate with atheists; the most skilful accumulators of property ally themselves with communists; this peculiar and chosen race touch the hand of all the scum and low casts of Europe. And all this because they wish to destroy that ungrateful Christendom whose tyranny they can no longer endure” (Benjamin Disraeli, Lord George Bentinck: A Political Biography, p. 357).

Maurice Samuel wrote the lament or menace, “. . . we Jews, the destroyers, will remain the destroyer forever. . . nothing that the Gentiles will do will meet our needs and demands” (Maurice Samuel, You Gentiles).